Into the Force
by Wonderstorm
Summary: Set during Return of the Jedi, directly after Anakin Skywalker's death.  Anakin passes into the afterlife and finds his friends and family waiting for him.


**A/N: Originally written in February 2010. It felt weird to write a story that was set after someone's death, but I really like the way this one turned out. I didn't like Anakin much at first, but he grew on me so much that I really like him now. Rated K+ for mentions of death and murder.**

**Disclaimer: Nuh-uh, don't own Star Wars. And if I were making money with this story, what would it be doing here?**

Into the Force

Anakin had never imagined that death, the last leap into the Force, would be so wonderful. As a Jedi, he had spent many years striving to become one with the Force; but even becoming one with the Force in life could not begin to compare to this joy. He was not living outside the Force anymore; he _was_ the Force. He was wrapped up in its ongoing flow and eternal presence. How could he have ever viewed death with such terror, if death led to this glorious place?

He had feared death because Palpatine had taught him to fear it by his own example. Everything he had learned as a Jedi had been turned upside down when he became a Sith. He had embraced this reversal and taught himself to use fear and hatred as his weapons. The darkness had been fascinating to his benighted mind. But every teaching that the Sith had instilled in him was insubstantial now. He knew that the Jedi had always been right, and the Sith had always been wrong.

Did the path of the Sith and the path of the Jedi lead to the same place in death? He stretched out into the wonderful pulsing path of the Force, but he could not feel the dark presence of his Sith master. Unsurprising, since he supposed that the joy of this place would have tortured him eternally. Instead, he brushed against a different presence that radiated love and forgiveness.

Anakin rushed forward into Obi-Wan's open arms. No, not his arms—his whole being. Here neither of them was hindered by his Human body. Anakin embraced Obi-Wan with so much more than just his arms. His sorrow and regret poured forth more strongly than tongue or tears could have described before, when he was living. Obi-Wan's unbounded love surrounded him in response and assured him that he was forgiven.

Another presence joined them and his joy grew. Qui-Gon! The old Jedi master's triumph and happiness burned like warm flames that leaped higher than the flames had leaped on his funeral pyre so long ago. All the events of his life were laid out before Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon now; they must know about all the murders he had committed and all the darkness that had long been in his heart. He had deliberately murdered Obi-Wan. Yet Obi-Wan's forgiveness of him was complete, and Qui-Gon's triumph showed that he had never stopped believing in Anakin's fulfillment of the prophecy.

But how could they have known that he would not die within his darkness? So confident were his old friends that he would find his way back to the light that they had been _waiting_ for him. The life of a Sith had shattered his soul, each new murder burying the precious shards until he had been sure that his soul was gone forever. He had not cared; his master had encouraged him to deny his virtue, his conscience, his soul. But Luke, thank the Force, had cared, and he had offered him a second chance at the life that he had tried to run away from for so long. He had not been worthy then of his son's kindness. He was unworthy now to stand before Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon's shining light of love that forgave his sins and healed his soul.

Two other beings arrived—or had they always been there? Anakin reached out to them in wonder. Padme . . . and his mother! His beloved Padme was here, who had hoped in him even after he had given her nothing to hope in; and never again would he be separated from his mother's love, which was surrounding him more strongly now than it had in life. He had existed without all of them for so long. He knew now that he had never truly lived since Darth Vader had consumed his life. He had only existed to satisfy his empty desire for power. Until the last moments of his life, he had only existed and had forgotten what it meant to live.

Here, in the Force, with his loved ones surrounding him, he could begin to live a life that would be more wonderful than the one that he had left behind. He reached deeper into the Force and felt the magnitude of countless beings moving within its interconnecting web. There were so many Jedi, but no Sith, because the Sith refused to come here. If he had died as a Sith, he would have fled from the peace and happiness of this place as well. But instead he had died as a Jedi and had been granted his infinitely joyful reward.

As Obi-Wan nudged him forward, Anakin thanked the Force again for guiding him home, to this bliss, as his mother, Padme, Qui-Gon, and Obi-Wan had always believed it would.

*The End*

**A/N: So maybe Obi-Wan didn't have quite as much faith in Anakin's fate as I wrote in my story, but, like I said before, I like this story very much. Don't make me use the Force on you to get you to read and review!**


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